


Love In Pixels

by ProjectFandoms



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Cute Dan Howell/Phil Lester, Dan Howell and Phil Lester Are Teenagers, Dan Howell/Phil Lester Fluff, M/M, Virtual Reality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-14 09:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16037681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProjectFandoms/pseuds/ProjectFandoms
Summary: "I will find you in any world, Phil"Virtual Reality A.U.Made by _philseyelash on instagramInspired by @_philseylash 's edit https://www.instagram.com/p/BmRQgjjgoCJ/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=352e6qrlptvkPlease go follow them on Instagram.Original story by me on Wattpad@InternetXplrhttps://www.wattpad.com/616557778-love-in-pixels-i





	1. I

June 13, that time of year where the weather should be warm and people should be out and about enjoying a summer's day. But, as if conforming to a natural stereotype, London was overcast and dreary. The scent of freshly fallen rain arose from the ground, and the sound of water droplets echoed around the vacant streets of the city. This eerie, vacant street provided a sense of serenity for Daniel Howell, who was walking back to his flat. Soaked to the bone, he mentally cursed PJ for forcing him to leave the warmth of his bed to join him, Chris, Louise, Hazel, and Tom for lunch. He had arrived at the restaurant fashionably late, out of breath from sprinting through the rain from the tube. Little did he know, but it was a surprise birthday celebration for him.

He was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. But lately, he had been in this funk that he could not get rid of. If anyone had noticed, they hadn't said a word. The meal as pleasant, Dan enjoyed catching up with old friends. But something was not the same. Something was different about the way they regarded each other as if they had grown apart in the mere month they had all been separated. Tom sat on Dan's right side, and after all of the birthday festivities were complete, handed Dan a wrapped box, telling him to wait to open it until he got home. Goodbyes were said, hugs were given, and the 6 friends departed in their separate ways.

————————————————-  
As Dan arrived back at his flat, his eagerness to open the gift Tom had given him had only grown. Placing the box on the table, Dan ripped the paper off of it as quickly as possible. He stared at the box, partially confused.

"VR?" Dan said to himself, as he inspected the box. Tom knew Dan liked video games, and Dan, after some quick research, found that this box contained a headset that would allow him to nearly enter the video game. Inside the box, there was the headset and a note. It was from Tom, wishing Dan a happy birthday.

Dan smiled at the note and began to unpack the device. He spent hours hooking it up to the t.v., confused by the multitudes of different colored wires and ports that the device contained. Once he completed that ordeal, the eagerness to play the game had risen to maximum potential. Dan booted up the game, slid the headset over his head, and took both controllers in his hands. The loading screen was there for a solid 5 minutes before the game actually started. As the home screen came into view, the start button prominent on the lower right-hand part of his vision, Dan could only muster up one thought. 

 

"What the f-"


	2. II

Dan stared at the screen inches from his face, slightly pissed at Tom for what he had done. 

"Friendship Simulator? Really Tom?" 

Dan shook his head in disbelief and instantly regretted it, as it led to him becoming so dizzy he had to sit down and take off the headset. 

Once he had recovered from his accidental terrible decision, he slid the headset back over his eyes and opened up the game. As it loaded in, Dan was awestruck by the graphics. It looked so realistic! 

"How did they managed to make everything look so real?!" 

The menu opened up, and it was time for Dan to make, a profile? Dan was confused, why would a simulator need him to make a profile? Even though Dan questioned the game, he continued on with making his profile anyways. When he had completed the profile, it asked him to upload a photo via the internet to his online profile. 

Now Dan was skeptical of the game. Why in the world would it need a photo? It's a game?! Dan, although confused, still decided to upload a photo. Maybe it overlayed the photo over the characters in the game? Or maybe it was just to see how he looked so it could, I don't know, adapt the game to how he looked? Dan was still confused. But he decided to trust this game. Tom got it for him, he wouldn't do anything crazy like endanger him or whatnot. 

 

Finally, Dan finished up his profile. It told him to select the person he would want to talk to. There were many photos of people, with the logo of the game in the lower right-hand corner. 

"It must be some stock photos the creators of the game put in, so it looks realistic." 

Dan scrolled through the many photos and finally came upon the person he wanted to talk to. 

 

A raven-haired emo looking guy with the name of Phil Lester. As soon as Dan clicked on the boy's photo, the surrounding area swirled into a rainbow of different colors. Dan began to feel dizzy once again. But, after a few disorienting seconds, Dan found himself sitting in a bedroom with a laptop opened in front of him. Dan was even more confused than before. This was a friendship simulator, why was he alone? He looked at the screen of the laptop in front of him, and that is when he saw his new "friend". 

 

The laptop was opened to a website called "YouTube", and on the website was a video produced by a user called "AmazingPhil". It was the boy that Dan had selected to be his virtual friend. But why was he only on the screen? Dan watched the video, carefully, and tried to soak in the buckets of information he was learning about his new virtual friend. Dan didn't know how this website worked, so he decided he would try to communicate with this Phil guy through the comments. 

"Hello, Amazing Phil! My name is Dan. Your video is great! :]"

Dan cringed at himself as he posted the comment, but decided that it was the only way to kickstart the friendship...simulation. 

Phil immediately replied to Dan's comment. 

"Thanks mate! You can just call me Phil"

 

Dan spent the next 5 hours talking with Phil over the YouTube comment section on the VR. It was incredibly strenuous for Dan to type on the VR, and he decided it was time to shut down. Almost by instinct, Dan said goodbye to Phil. 

"Bye Dan, same time tomorrow?"

Dan smiled, he was already starting to like this Phil guy. 

"Sure, Phil. Same time tomorrow. :]"

Dan shut down the VR, sent Tom a little nastygram over text messaging, and then proceeded to spend another 3 hours on the internet before heading off to bed.


	3. III

The next morning, Dan was determined to be less awkward then he had been the day before. Although he was only talking to a game, he wanted to get better at his conversation skills and knew that talking to someone who couldn't judge him for being awkward would be best to improve said skills. Dan waited a couple hours on the internet, for no other reason besides the fact that he had logged in at around 3 the previous day. He didn't really know why he decided to do this, but his mind told him to just wait since the game had said "Same time tomorrow." 

"Probably just a programming thing, to get you to come back consistently" 

 

Dan knew his logic was flawed. Maybe it meant "same time tomorrow" in the game? Since it was like, 5 when he had logged onto YouTube. He didn't care though since it was just another excuse to waste time lounging on the internet. 

 

Soon, 3 o'clock rolled around. Dan logged back into his save file and noticed that the game immediately started back up as if it was waiting for him. Another message from Phil came across the laptop in front of him, asking him if he wanted to meet up. 

"This is kind of fast Phil, you may want to slow down a bit," Dan joked. Phil's response of "It may be quick, but you seem really cool and I'd like to hang out with you in person" seemed to be completely serious and sincere. 

"They did a really great job programming this," Dan thought. "It's super realistic."

Dan agreed, and the world in front of him changed once again. As he observed his new surroundings, he realized that he was inside a train station. He looked left and right, confused on why he was at a train station by himself when he should have been somewhere else with his new virtual friend. Then, he heard a voice that had become very familiar to him on the previous day call his name. 

"Dan? Dan!"

Dan turned around and there he was. Philip Lester, his new virtual friend, standing there in front of him. Dan was in awe, he hadn't realized how tall Phil was or how beautiful his eyes were through the virtual laptop screen. Dan had to look away from Phil for a moment, reminding himself that this was a game. 

"Hi P-" Dan was cut off by Phil engulfing him in a huge hug. 

"Dan! I'm so glad you're here!" Phil was nearly jumping up and down, pulling Dan through the train station to a taxi outside. They rode in silence, Dan was unsure what to say and was feeling entirely intimidated by the virtual boy sitting next to him in the game. They arrived at Phil's apartment, and they went up to Phil's room. Phil gave him the grand tour and asked him if he would like to film a video with him. 

"Sure!" 

"I'm going to call it 'Philisnotonfire', since you're in it, yeah?" Phil said while setting up his equipment. 

"Why Philisnotonfire?" Dan asked. 

"So it incorporates your username!" 

Dan had forgotten that he had called his "channel" Danisnotonfire. 

"Okay, sure." 

"Alright Dan, so I think you should read the questions off of Twitter while I answer them?"

Dan agreed and spent around 2 hours filming a video with Phil. They were nearing the end, Dan knew that it was getting late and he wanted to log out soon. 

"This is the most fun I've ever had," he said, and Phil tackled him to the ground. They both burst into a fit of giggles and Dan felt something weird inside his chest. He stared into Phil's eyes momentarily and looked away almost as quickly as he had started. 

"Bye Phil. I'll talk to you later, yeah?"

"Yeah Dan, it'll be fun!"

Dan logged out, wishing that he didn't have to leave his new friend behind in the game.


	4. IV

As time went by, Dan saw his real friends less and less as he spent more and more time with Phil. Phil was his escape from reality, someone that he could always rely on. Dan began to look forward to spending time on the VR set, spending hours upon hours with Phil.

Dan began to tell Phil everything. It was almost as if he was actually there, his best friend. Dan created a YouTube channel, through the motivation of Phil, and they worked together to make more and more videos together. This virtual life slowly began to replace Dan's real life, leaving him with a deep desire to join Phil in this perfect world. A place where he was able to be creative, to be with his best friend forever. 

 

They had moved in together, so Dan no longer saw the train station when he loaded up the game. Now he saw the small Manchester apartment that they had bought together. Dan was pursuing a law degree, while Phil had already gotten a degree. But Dan was getting to the edge of his will. He could not stand this law degree. Why did he decide to go after a law degree? He had the chance to be whoever he wanted to be in this game, yet he decided to try and get a degree. Maybe it was just to impress Phil, but why would that matter anyways. And Dan was done. DONE with university. 

 

Recently, he had been feeling really down due to an ongoing existential crisis. Sometimes, he couldn't bring himself to get out of bed. Phil was worried, since he had not seen this side to Dan before. 

 

"Why are you sad, Dan?".

" *sigh*, because I don't know what I'm doing with my life."

"Well you're at University, aren't you? So you won't have to think about it for another two years."

"BUT WHAT THEN, PHIL? WHAT THEN?"

 

Dan had felt bad about yelling at Phil, but he could not bring himself out of this funk. When it came time to reenroll in university, he had to resit a test to be able to continue university. And of course, he decided to leave the reviewing to the night before. The cramming got to him, and he just broke. 

 

"Augh. I'm not doing it!"

Phil, who had been giggling about video games the entire time Dan was reviewing, was confused. "Wot?"

"I'm not gonna do it!"

"What?"

"No one can make me do it!"

"Dan, what are you on about?" Phil said gently, pausing his game and putting down his video game.

"That's it, I'm not going. "

"Dan?"

"I've had enough, I don't care anymore!"

"What aren't you going to?"

"My exam," Dan whispered, slightly ashamed for his overreaction, but still not over the rage, anxiety, stress, and overwhelming pressure he was feeling over university.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not going."

"Dan, you have to go to your resit."

"NOT IF I DON"T GIVE A F****** F***ANYMORE I DON'T" Dan shouted, throwing his books onto the ground and running out of the room.

Dan sank down in front of the oven, staring at the refrigerator as tears ran down his face. Why was he crying? Why was he getting so emotionally invested in this game, to the point where it is making him cry in real life? He heard Phil walk into the kitchen, but he refused to make eye contact. Phil slid down next to him, wrapping his arms around him. Dan burst into tears, crying into Phil's t-shirt. He was embarrassing himself so bad, getting his headset all fogged up. But he couldn't stop crying. Phil held him until the tears stopped, and Dan started feeling the emptiness of his apartment. For that one mo,ent, it felt like Phil was really there in front of him, hugging him, comforting him. But he was just virtual.   
"Are you okay, Dan?" Phil said softly, miming wiping a tear from Dan's face. Dan mumbled a soft, "I guess", but Phil wasn't buying it.   
"Now how about I get you some chocolate?"   
Dan nodded, and Phil left the room. As soon as he left, Dan logged out of the game, not wanting to embarrass himself further. He was embarrassed that he cried over the game. Embarrassed that he cried or an AI. Embarrassed that he wishes he could stay with Phil forever. Embarrassed that he was starting to feel something he shouldn't.


	5. V

For a couple days, Dan refused to return to the VR game. He couldn't understand why he was feeling so terrible about what he did to Phil. He just left, Phil was trying to help him feel better, trying to console him over the fact that he was freaking out over college. Trying to make sure that his friend was going to be okay, and Dan just left. And Dan felt terrible. Staying away from Phil was one of the hardest things Dan had done in a while. Okay, one of the hardest things Dan had done in his "adult" years of life. For some reason, he could not bring himself to get out of bed. He couldn't motivate himself to do anything. And it was killing him to stay away from Phil.

 

 

Around July 12th, Dan decided to stop ignoring Phil. Every day, he just yearned to see those piercing blue eyes with all of the colors swirling inside of them, and to hear Phil's gentle voice telling him that everything was going to be alright. Dan needed Phil to be his crutch, his support. And yeah, maybe he was becoming too reliant on a video game for support, but Phil is what he needed to be okay again. What he needed to get back up and go at life again. Around 3pm, Dan signed into his account on his system. There were quite a few messages popping up when he logged back on.

"Hey Dan, when I came back you were gone. I don't know if I said something wrong, but I hope you are okay."

"Hey Dan, it's been a few days. When are you planning on coming back?"

"Hey Dan, it's been over a week since we last spoke. I miss you, please come back"

All were signed with ~Phil:D

Dan smiled giddily, but it quickly fell as he realized that he was disappointing an AI. How pathetic was he, to disappoint an AI. Dan quickly hit play, to remove the disapproving messages from the screen. As soon as he hit play, he was instantly transported into the bedroom of the shared apartment. He sat down on his bed, just looking at his hands as he took how disappointed Phil sounded in his messages and how it was his fault.

The door flew open, and a very worried looking Phil appeared in front of him. His hair was extremely messy, there were bags under his eyes, and he looked as if he had spent several nights awake.

"Dan! You're back!"

Dan was then thrown onto the floor as Phil tackled him in a huge hug.

"I missed you so much, Dan. I thought you weren't going to come back."

Dan looked into Phil's eyes and saw pain, worry, and something he could not put his finger on. Almost as soon as he looked into his eyes, he looked away in guilt. Phil held him for around 5 minutes, before getting up and helping Dan back to his feet.

"Sorry."

Dan smiled at Phil, still feeling terrible about abandoning him, but glad that Phil seemed to forgive him. Phil smiled back at him, the worry leaving his eyes almost instantaneously.

"Come on! We've got adventures to go on!" Phil said, grabbing Dan's hand once more and dragging him out of the room.


	6. VI

Later on that evening, Phil suggested that they make a new video for his Youtube channel. 

"I'm really hungry. And I already got the ingredients, so, we're making cookies."

Dan, still in shock from Phil tackling him to the floor, agreed to make cookies with his best friend. 

Phil started the camera and took out all the ingredients. He then whispered to Dan, "Run and slide in!" before starting to run towards the wall. He slid to a stop, right before Dan crashed into him, almost sending the pair to the floor. 

The pair laughed and began making cookies with a recipe from their lord and savior, Delia Smith. The entire time, Dan kept looking into Phil's eyes, searching them for any sign of disappointment or anything other than the happiness that was evident in the smile on his face. He found nothing, but couldn't stop himself from looking back at Phil. He didn't know if Phil realized that Dan kept stealing glances at him, but GOD was he good to look at. Dan, although not fully focusing, knew he was in too deep when Phil made eye contact with him and he just melted. He couldn't focus, everything around Phil just becoming a blurry haze. Although he hadn't been paying attention, the cookies came out of the oven and were complete. He tried one of them, and his VR set said that they were delicious. He quickly shoved the cookie into Phil's mouth, who agreed with the game in saying that the cookies were great. Dan was just glad that he hadn't mucked them up. 

Although Dan had been stealing glances at Phil the entire video, he failed to realize that Phil was doing the exact same thing. 

 

 

After the two had finished cleaning up their tremendous mess, they decided that the next day they wanted to go on an adventure outside in Manchester. They decided to go to bed, and they both went to their separate rooms. Dan looked up at the ceiling for most of the night, not being able to fall asleep from the guilt that he was still feeling. Although he doubted that Phil actually cared that he hadn't shown up for a long time, since it was a video game, he still felt guilty for not checking in at all. 

Eventually, he sat up in his bed and leaned up against the headboard. He remained silent, listening to the quiet of the apartment. He debated whether or not he should wake up Phil since he seemed to always be more comfortable with him. But instead, he shrugged on a sweatshirt that was just thrown onto the floor and quietly made his way through the apartment. Grabbing his keys off of the counter, he made his way out of the apartment and into the dark garden area of their apartment complex. He made his way over to the fountains that always seemed to blow onto the pavement and just sat on the edge of it, not caring if he got wet. Dan looked up at the sky, hoping to see stars in the vast emptiness stretching overhead, but the overbearing lights of the city made it impossible to see them. 

As the night stretched on, Dan stole glances at the dark corner apartment he was calling home. He wished that Phil had been wondering about him. That he had gone into his room and noticed him missing. That he would throw on all of the lights in search of him. That he would be frantically calling and texting before throwing on a coat and come rushing out to the garden that Dan was sitting in. But that didn't happen. This may be a game, where he could make up his own story, but he couldn't condition things to be exactly how he wanted it to be. He cursed the game makers for not allowing him to make Phil come down here right now, and for not allowing him to influence other character's decisions and choices. But he knew that the game makers were the ones who allowed him to meet Phil in the first place. If not for these game makers, Dan would be sitting at home alone while he watched all of his real-life friends go out and be social and have relationships. Dan had wanted that for so long but realized that his introverted personality topped with other underlying issues made him seem unapproachable. And now, all he wanted was the boy sleeping up in that dark corner apartment. 

 

________________________________________________________________________________

Eventually, Dan trudged back up their infinite staircase back to their apartment. Dan made his way back to his room, but stopped quickly at Phil's door, which was opened a crack. He looked in, and noticed that Phil was not in his room. Dan opened the door to his own room, only to see the raven haired boy curled up in his bed, cuddling his pillow. As Dan got closer, he saw that Phil's face was stained with tears and that he was wearing his sweatshirt. Dan looked longingly at the sleeping boy for a moment, before gently shaking him. 

"Phil, Phil? Wake up," he whispered.

Phil slowly opened his eyes, looking directly into Dan's. As soon as they made eye contact, Phil squeaked and flipped over, covering his face with his hands. Dan chuckled, before sitting on the edge of the bed. 

Neither of them said anything, just sat in silence for a little while. Then, Dan heard the bed creak and he sighed. He lay down, eyes closed, facing away from the spot where Phil had been laying. A couple tears ran down his face, which he quickly wiped away. It wasn't until an arm wrapped around him that he realized that Phil hadn't left. Dan faced him, tears still welling up in his eyes. Phil smiled softly, pulling Dan into a hug. They both lay like that until they both fell asleep. When Dan woke up the next morning, Phil was right there next to him.


	7. VII

Dan lay awake for a couple hours, staring at the ceiling and contemplating getting up. Still laying in Phil's arms, he felt a sense of comfort that he never felt before. But Dan felt a sinking feeling in his chest, and that drove him to remove himself from Phil's warm embrace and made his way into the kitchen. He debated whether or not he should make himself some breakfast, but remembered that he had some Country Crisp cereal that he had hidden from Phil so he would stop eating it. Instead of eating, Dan decided to wait for Phil to get up and instead sat on the couch scrolling through Tumblr. Around an hour later, he heard his door open up and Phil came stumbling down the hallway. 

"Dan?"

"Yeah, Phil?"

"Oh, I thought you wouldn't be here."

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, every time I can't find you, you seem to have left."

Dan looked down in shame, refusing to look him in the eyes. Phil noticed this and moved toward the couch. Sitting on the arm of the couch, Phil side hugged Dan. 

"I know you can't help it. You can't stay here forever. But please just, don't leave without saying goodbye."

Dan remained rigid for a minute, before wrapping his arms around Phil and burying his face into Phil's shoulder. Dan didn't say anything, but all he felt was emptiness. He wasn't hugging anything, yet he saw himself doing so. He couldn't feel Phil, and he desperately needed to. 

"I, uh, gotta go Phil."

"Oh. Okay, Dan. I'll see you when you come back," Phil said with a sad grin. Dan logged out of his account, just in time for the doorbell to ring. 

 

He grudgingly walked towards the door, and almost as soon as he touched the doorknob, the door flew open, hitting him in the face. 

"FUCK!" 

Dan grabbed his nose, checking to see if he was bleeding. He looked up, and Tom, PJ, Chris, and Louise were standing there. PJ was standing with his foot slightly raised in the air. 

"Whoops. Sorry, Dan."

"What are you guys doing here?"

"We haven't seen you in a month, Dan."

"It's been a month?"

"Dan, we thought you were dead," Louise said, looking very concerned. 

"I'm not. Ta-da!" Dan said sarcastically. 

"Dan. Actually, we were really worried. Stop playing around and be serious!" PJ exclaimed, pushing his way past Dan into the apartment.

"You couldn't have actually thought that I was dead." 

"Well, yeah. We've been calling you non-stop for the past week, we hadn't heard anything from you and, well, you didn't seem very well the last time we saw you." Louise almost whispered, seemingly ashamed for what she was saying to him. 

"Okay. Well, I'm not. So you can go now. "

"What the fuck is your problem, Dan?" Tom growled, "We haven't seen you for a month, we presume you are dead, we come over to see you fine and dandy and you just want to kick us out even though you HAVEN'T SEEN OR SPOKEN TO US IN A MONTH?!"

"Well, I didn't ask you to come looking for me."

"What the hell happened to you, Dan?" Tom shook his head, before grabbing Chris' arm and dragging him out of the apartment. Louise quickly followed. 

"Dan, we were really worried about you." PJ spat, before following everyone out and slamming the door behind him. 

Dan slowly sank down the wall behind him and began to quietly sob. 

"Maybe I am better off dead. Then I wouldn't disappoint everyone that is close to me."

As the hours went on, and Dan ran out of tears, he contemplated calling up his friends to apologize. But instead, he decided to grab his VR set. 

"Hey, Phil."

"Dan! You're back! It's time for us to go on an adventure!"


End file.
